Friday, July 28, 2006

Ok, ok, so this has to be the worst/longest sabatical I have ever taken from blogging, and the worst part of it is ~ I have had material all along, I simply have not had the time ~Ok, woe is me :-PNow, on to the better, more interesting stuff. Today you all get a look into the new and thrilling job of my husband, ~ that of chainsaw carving bears (among other things, he carves all sorts of stuff, both relief, in the round, chainsaw, etc). Remember when I said he had gotten sick to the gills of HR, and decided the income simply wasn't worth the anguish, and therefore switched over to bear carving?Well, if you ever wondered how they do it, now yah get to see ~ Chainsaw maintainance is key to good carvings ~ if the blades are dull, they cut hot, and therefore slow down the carving, as well as cut ragged, and that heats up the engine, all bad joojoo, best to keep the saws in good working order.

Measuring the log, ( this bear is gonna be a biggy, it will stand taller than me, that's over 5 ft tall!) Checking the log for cracks, positioning, and viability. VROOM ~ hehehe, always wanted to make that noise! This part would suck for me, but he likes it, cuz it's like lifting weights with a purpose, keeps him in shape for hockey season, he says. :-D Checking out the best placement for the face, as cracks, boles, and knots make it more difficult, and can ruin the face. Notice that he has to stand up on other logs to reach the top. That looks insane to me, but he insisted it was safe. Like OSHA knows ~ :-PSome of the cuts are just plain physically demanding, let alone lifting the saw all day long.

You can start to see the face taking shape.All right, blogger isn't letting me upload any more pics to this entry, so I am going to do a part II.

All righty now, You get to see the cool finished product in this section ~ You can see how huge this bear is in relation to normal humans, hubby is 6ft tall, & I took this pic from clear across the field. This is a bare nekkid bear, planter style, waiting to get some color, eyes, hair, etc.

Dead bear lying in the field. (Cracked and sheared, oughta be firewood, but how do you bring yourself to chucking a bear into the fireplace? So here he lies, dead in the field. :-D)

Here's the biggest bear Hubby has done thus far (He's doing a five foot sun now, I will provide pics of that eventually, too.) This bear has been torched, but has not gotten sealed or finished yet. Diggin' for gold ~ ;-D

Welcome /go-away bear, already for sale. A cute moose.

A whole herd of little bitty bears ( about 2 ft tall), just waiting to get loaded onto the truck.

I love the bikini bears ~ aren't they cute in their itty-bitty yellow polka-dot bikini's?

And that's the rest of the story ~Coming Up Next :The 4th of July in My Town, USA. (They said we got over 98,000 people to this show, some speculations were over 120,000(hotel stats)!!! That's pretty darn good for a little town of 55,000!)

About Me

I love my husband, children & grandchildren. They bring me more happiness & peace than I deserve. I also love all those little things in life that make me stop and wonder. Like a 2 yr old discovering an ant, or the beauty of a spider in a rose, or the vista from atop a mountain trail. Sounds corny, but it's true! I love backpacking into a place and stopping along the way to eat the berries, and identify all the wild flowers. I love sleeping in the middle of nowhere in a tent, ( with my little self-inflating mattress! ;-D) Try it sometime, guarantee you'll go back for more ~ ;-D And I love to take pictures of all the beautiful things along the way.